we begin with john sasaki. >> this community is bustling on a saturday night but with heavy hearts. that's how it's been all day. >> it felt so unreal. to think that those poor childre something like this coming. and those parents who now have to live without their children. it's too much. >> reporter: beyond the schoolh is so profoundly impacted, some people nearby also witnessed the devastation. >> we came around the corner of the fire house, two little boys, one screaming hysterically, and the other one telling him "stop, stop." >> reporter: she says this tragedy would forever change her fond memories of being a student at sandy hook elementary. >> i remember the school as a happy harmonious, safe place and it's been taken away. >> reporter: help as been pouring in to the area from across the state, including from hartford where crisis responders know violence all too well. is >> we want to pour our love in and say this could have been our children. this could have been anybody's children. >> serious mental health issues we have yet to even begin to talk about. >> reporter: this